New Year's Eve
by MagpieCircus
Summary: Just a silly little Dramione fluff one-shot. Hermione and Draco make a decision at their best friend's New Year's Eve party.


A/N: Just want to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone that reviewed my last fic. I was so apprehensive before posting it but you guys have really given me confidence to write some more!

This is just a little story I wrote when I had writer's block on another story I'm working on and when I was trying to come up with some fun NYE plans for my friends and myself.

Hope you enjoy!

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She was probably a little drunker than she would have ordinarily preferred. Blaise's punch was infamously strong. He always joked that he used what was left over (if any) to clean the drains. It cut through anything. And it had cut straight through her inhibitions. But hey, it was New Year's Eve after all.

The party was in full swing. All of her friends were there, with a couple of notable exceptions – Neville was in the hospital with his wife, probably pacing the room, waiting for his son to be born. There were cheesy Christmassy pop songs playing on the stereo, and Luna, Ron and Dean were singing and dancing along, Luna seemingly dancing to a completely different song by the looks of it. Harry, Pansy, Blaise, Draco and a couple of others were at the table, playing some drinking and betting game with cards. She had joined in earlier, but they were all masters at it and she ended up losing a lot. She'd had to stop after the room started to slowly spin and she'd lost all the cash she came with.

She was sat on the sofa with Ginny. She hadn't seen the red-haired witch since before Christmas so Ginny was telling her all about her new fiancé's family that she had spent Christmas Day with. Ginny had met a Canadian wizard called Gus when she'd been travelling the summer before last and they'd fallen hard for each other.

"Care to dance, Gin?" he came over and offered his hand to Ginny. "You don't mind do you Hermione?"

"Of course not, Gus." She smiled and Ginny got up to join the others dancing.

She sat for a while, watching the party, and thinking how lucky she was to have such a great group of friends, especially considering that six years ago, this party would have been unthinkable.

She was just about to get up and grab another drink ( _It's New Year's Eve, Hermione! If you can't get pissed now, when can you?_ She'd told herself), when Draco swung over the back of the sofa to land beside her, holding two cups of punch.

"Alright, Granger? Sobered up at all?"

"A little." She smiled.

"Well, I can fix that." He said and handed her one of the cups. "I need to win my money back off someone, and you're pathetic at that game."

"Ha ha, Malfoy. You know, I wonder sometimes why I'm even friends with you." She teased.

"Please. You adore me. Your life would be so boring without me in it." He hit his cup against hers and took a swig.

"My life would be a lot more peaceful without you in it." She smirked and sipped her drink.

"Who needs peace when you've got my wit, humour and dazzling good looks?"

She started fanning herself with her hand, still smirking. "It's getting awfully hot in here with your ego taking up all the air, Draco."

"Oh you're just too funny, Granger." He narrowed his eyes but then smiled.

She sighed happily and leant back against the sofa, resting her head against his shoulder.

"What's up, Granger?"

"Nothing. Just wondering when it all got so different. It feels like yesterday we were at school, hating each other. Now look at all of us! We're all here, together, some of us in love, Harry and Pansy are married for Merlin's sake! I'd never have believed it could all change this much."

It turned out most of the Slytherins weren't half as insufferable in the real world as they had been in school. Pansy was one of the sweetest women Hermione knew now. And Draco had changed immeasurably.

"Aren't you happy it's all changed this much?"

"Of course I am!" she reassured him. "I couldn't imagine my life without you guys. Especially you. It's just weird, you know. I don't know. I'm probably talking a load of bollocks. I have had a lot of this stuff."

"I'm used to you talking bollocks." He teased. "But I get you. It's like so much has changed since six years ago. If you'd told me I'd be best friends with Hermione-know-it-all-Granger, I'd have hexed you. What's going to be different in another six years?"

"Oh god! I don't want to be thirty!" she laughed and covered her face with her hands.

She still couldn't quite believe that Draco Malfoy was her best friend. It was bizarre to say the least. And neither of them could pinpoint exactly when it had happened. It had been Harry who had started being friends with Blaise through work and had brought them all together four years ago. It had been very tense at first, everyone walking on eggshells around each other. But Hermione and Draco became friends with each other slowly, after many an argument. They bounced off each other perfectly and had been practically inseparable for two and a half years now. They were best friends, but they were also in love, neither of them admitting it to each other, or even to themselves really.

They sat together in silence for a while, her head on his shoulder, and his head on hers.

"Do you ever think we'll work it all out?" he mused.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, wedding, house, kids. The whole shebang. Like all the others have. Do you think we'll find people?"

"I think so. Even if we don't, we've still got each other, right?"

"Absolutely. You're not getting rid of me that easily."

Another few moments passed. It was almost midnight. He draped an arm around her shoulders and twisted one of her curls around his finger absent-mindedly.

In those few minutes before midnight, with her head on his chest, she finally just thought: _Screw_ _it_.

"Do you ever think we could work it out?" she asked quietly. "You and me?"

He froze. He'd been waiting to hear that question from her for two years, without really realising it.

"I think we could give it a good go." He said carefully. He couldn't see her face. And he desperately wanted to. She always wore her thoughts and emotions on her face so he could read her like a book.

"You do?" she asked.

"With my determination and your stubbornness? We'd never let it fail." He joked.

"I'm not stubborn!" she swatted his chest gently and then another moment passed. "Do you ever think we should work it out?"

"Every day." He answered, and it was true. "Do you?"

"Absolutely." She said quietly. She felt her face flush, and she was glad he couldn't see her. She couldn't quite believe they were finally having this conversation.

"So are we going to then? Try me and you as an _us_?" he asked, hating how nervous he sounded.

"I think it would be the logical thing to do." She surmised.

Another minute passed in silence, both of them simultaneously ecstatic and yet somewhat unbelieving about what they'd just agreed to.

Then the countdown started and everyone started shouting. She sat up quickly, putting her knees underneath her and turning her body to face him.

"Start as we mean to go on?" she smiled sheepishly.

"Absolutely."

And right when the countdown ended and everyone cheered and yelled and hugged, their lips met and they melted into each other.

In that moment, for both of them, their surroundings drifted away and it was just her and him and the glorious electricity between them.

When they finally pulled away, it was only an inch. She kept her hand in his hair and he kept hers wrapped around the back of her neck. They were both grinning.

Resting his forehead against hers and staring into those beautiful, big brown eyes, he smiled and said "Happy New Year, Hermione."

"Happy New Year, Draco." She stared into his deep grey eyes, memorising every fleck of colour, before closing the gap between them again and feeling his warm, soft lips on hers.

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Please review and let me know what you think!


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